It was in the toe all along!

Published December 6, 2012

Stockton Sentinel

Stockton, Kansas

Some stories are just too cute to keep to ourselves; such is the case with this one. I hope Laurie (Calvin) Antonini doesn’t mind, because her story of a lost—and recently found—engagement ring just begs to be shared.

Laurie was in the Sentinel office one day last week, and we were admiring her beautiful diamond ring. Being a recent bride, she happily showed it to us, and then told us it is the second diamond ring that Dominic bought for her because she lost the first one. I may not have all the facts exactly right, but the story goes something like this.

It happened about a year ago, when Laurie removed her ring while doing some exercises in their home. Since the ring was a little loose, Laurie took it off and laid it on an end table while she finished exercising.

Sometime later, she realized she had not put her ring back on, and went to retrieve it from the table, but it was gone. She looked everywhere and couldn’t find it, and she asked her three-year-old daughter, Sophia, if she knew where Mommy’s ring was. Sophia said yes, she did, and went to Laurie’s jewelry box where she keeps all her rings. But the special engagement diamond ring was not there. No matter where or how hard she looked, she could not find the ring. 

And so time went on, as well as the wedding plans, and with no diamond ring on her finger, the only noble thing for our friend Dominic to do was buy Laurie another one. And so he did, and that’s the one we were admiring last week.

Weekend before last, Laurie had gotten out their boxes of Christmas decorations to begin the task of decorating, and little Sophia found some of her favorite things, one of those being her own stocking. She picked it up and put her little hand down inside, all the way to the toe of the stocking, and pulled out Mommy’s diamond ring. It had been safely kept there for a year, and even the excitement of emptying the stocking after Santa’s visit didn’t produce the diamond ring. The good thing is, all that excitement didn’t loose the diamond ring, either.

I can only imagine that some years from now, a grown-up Sophia might once again find that diamond ring in her stocking, with her mother telling the story of the lost, and then found, engagement ring. But for now, Laurie says the ring has been put away for safekeeping. And from now on, I think she will slip her own hand into everyone’s stockings before putting them away, just to make sure nothing is in the toe.